What does this phase really mean and where the heck did it generate?
Many fitness enthusiasts know the famous fitness guru, Jack Lelanne. If you aren't familiar with him, you've certainly heard his quote "No Pain. No Gain."
Now that I know better (
much better- thank you Pavel & Dr. Cobb) hearing this makes my skin crawl and unfortunately I get a not-so-hot impression of the person saying it. They really don't know the human body or its design. If your trainer says "No Pain. No Gain" to you
and is serious, run FAST in the opposite direction! Because they WILL hurt you... (They are not as smart as they want you to think they are.)
No one wants to get hurt. No one wants to be in pain. Pain relief and pain management, let alone the products is like what? a mulit-gazillion dollar industry. Pain takes no prisoners. It doesn't care if you're male or female, young or old, from the far east or a westerner.
Pain is a warning signal FOR A REASON. Hello? Human survival... Plus being in pain that leads to injury can put you out of the game permanently. Now was "one more rep" really worth getting laid up on the couch eating Cheetos watching Springer re-runs?
Our bodies were BUILT to move. That's why people that sit all day in front of a neon screen get depressed. It's not rocket science. All those bendy joint parts with muscles and tendons and cool tissues attached to them are an awesome design, (that's the understatement of the century!). But it's our job to put it all to use and get it in motion- GOOD,
QUALITY motion that enables us to KEEP MOVING. So we don't get depressed...which leads us down a slippery slop of less movement, more depression, less enjoyment out of life, and more you guessed it depression (remember the blog about the SAID principle? Depression is a rep in the bank that sticks hard and does A LOT of damage).
When we don't move well, we start to get that pain signal warning us to stop. That's survival kicking in again. Darwin would laugh at those that continued to press on when their bodies were trying to tell them they were about to break.
Pain isn't all bad though. Pain is a good thing. Yes, if you're an RKC you've heard the Chief say it, three little words, "Pain is good." What he's referring to is not the pain that breaks you. Rather the pain of muscles breaking down to re-build because you spent a weekend doing something you've never done before. And also the pain you push through to develop "mental toughness." Which is a VERY good skill to develop in my opinion. Developing mental toughness is
perfect for survival.
How do you know the difference between good pain and bad pain? Easily. When our survival is threatened we get "tunnel vision." So if you think you're just being a wuss and want to know if you really can handle more, stand tall and look straight ahead. Now, if you have a nice wide peripheral field of vision on either side you can keep going. If all you can take in is what's in front of you, um that's your sign to stop and re-group. Now if you were to keep doing what you're doing and you break, you need a different kind of sign, one from Jeff Foxworthy.
Training really is about common sense with the bottom line always being survival.
Remember that the people that complicate it are trying to make themselves elitists. They want you to believe they know something you don't and that you need that something. But hello Bueller, they aren't in your body so how can they really know what's best for you? Use YOUR brain, because it also is subservient to the SAID Principle, if you don't use it, you lose it...and "A mind is a terrible thing to waste." :)
Os is a smart cookie. He got my dvd and sports Red Star Gear!
